A Manual on Chemical Immobilization of Wild Animals
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A Manual on Chemical Immobilization of Wild Animals Contributing Authors: Dr. Sadanand Sontakke, Dr. Govindhaswamy Umapathy, Dr. Devender Kumar, Dr. D.N. Singh 2017 Central Zoo Authority and Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES) CSIR- Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology Hyderabad 500007. 1 2 INDEX OF CONTENTS Sl. CHAPTER PAGE No. 1 Introduction 6 2 Capture Methods 10 3 Anaesthetic Drugs 17 4 Anaesthetic Antagonists 24 5 Anaesthesia Equipment 26 6 Anaesthesia in Wild Felids 37 Anaesthesia in Wild 7 44 Ungulates Handling of Immobilized 8 51 Animals References and further 60 suggested readings 3 INDEX OF FIGURES Sl. No. FIGURE 1 Squeeze cage at LaCONES Animal Holding Facility for Physical Restraint of Wild Felids (Leopard) housed at LaCONES-CCMB 2 Pole syringe and Jab-stick for immobilization of captive animals 3 Dart syringes of varying capacity (1 ml to 5 ml) to be darted via blow-pipe 4 Cross section of dart syringe showing different parts 5 Blow pipe used for darting and size varies from 1 to 2 meters 6 Darting of a captive Tiger using a blow pipe that covers a range of approximately 5 meters 7 Pistol for immobilization of wild animals 8 Rifle for immobilization of wild animals 9 Captive Tiger was anaesthetized with a combination of ketamine-xylazine using a dart syringe projected via a Blow-pipe 10 Marked areas on the Axis deer (Axis axis) are the preferred sites of intramuscular injection by darting. The preferred areas are the large muscular region on the hindquarters and shoulder 11 A State-of-art Operation Theatre at LaCONES equipped with modern instruments required for anaesthesia monitoring in wild animals. An anaesthetized Leopard is seen on the operation table before performing electroejaculation procedure 12 Pulse oximeter displaying oxygen saturation (SpO2) in the blood and the pulse rate 4 INDEX OF TABLES Sl. No. TABLE 1 Recommended sizes of dart needles for use in wild animals 2 Recommended anaesthetic combinations reported earlier for common Wild felids 3 Time to onset of anaesthesia, lateral recumbency and anaesthesia (minutes) in the captive Asiatic lions, leopards and tigers anaesthetized with ketamine and xylazine 4 Physiological variables in captive Asiatic lions, leopards and tigers anaesthetized with ketamine (2.32 ± 1.1 mg/kg) and xylazine (1.16 ± 0.5 mg/kg) 5 Stages of yohimbine-induced recovery of ketamine (2.32 ± 1.1 mg/kg) and xylazine (1.16 ± 0.5 mg/kg) induced anaesthesia in the captive Asiatic lions, Leopards and Tigers 6 Immobilization of large and small ungulates - Drug dosage for Sambar (Rusa unicolor), Barasingha (Rucervus duvaucelii) and Nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus) 7 Immobilization of small wild ungulates 8 Recovery time of anesthetized Spotted deer after IV administration of yohimbine 9 Comparative effectiveness of two alpha2-adrenergic antagonists on recovery of ketamine-xylazine induced anaesthesia in captive Blackbucks 10 Immobilization of large herbivores such as Elephant, Rhinoceros, Giraffe etc. in captivity or in free-ranging 5 1. INTRODUCTION Severe threat of extinction of several wildlife species in the recent past has alarmed wildlife biologists and conservationists. Many conservation efforts are being attempted focusing on wild animals including mammals and their ecosystems. Such conservation and management programs often rely on research methodologies that require the handling of animals ranging from the radio-collaring, procurement of biomedical samples for research purposes to the translocation of the animals to another area, or even for management purposes in captivity. Further, restraining is often required in case of most of the manipulating and handling procedures on wild animals. It could be for routine health checkup (veterinary care, surgical intervention, vaccination, hormonal implantation or sterilization), research purpose (assisted reproductive techniques, blood collection for genetic health analysis, radio-collaring), or for conservation and management purposes (capture of problematic animals, translocation and reintroduction). Thus, capture and handling of zoo wild animals plays an important role in wildlife conservation and management. Although physical restraint is easy to operate and do not pose much risk to the animals, it has several limitations and many times it is unachievable. Chemical restraint is one of the most reliable alternative to restraining wildlife species as and when required and thus it has become a valuable tool in wildlife conservation research and management. Historically, chemical restraint can be traced when South American tribes used curare-coated arrows to 6 immobilize animals for hunting for food. Although this method was effective for many years, an actual beginning of the chemical immobilization procedures dates back to the late 1950's by rangers in South Africa. Great care has to be taken while anaesthetizing wildlife species so as to keep it within the safety margin of anaesthetics, either by using neuromuscular blockers, or sometimes combined with tranquilizers. However, with the advancement of science, chemical restraint of zoo and wildlife species has improved rapidly over a few decades with safer and efficient drugs, portable monitoring equipment, and precise methods of drug delivery. Modern immobilizing techniques are more humane methods for handling of wild animals that has drastically reduced side-effects of drugs and causalities. Further, the use of antagonist/antidotes of anaesthesia is being preferred to avoid undesirable and harmful effects of drugs and for speedy recovery of highly precious wildlife species. Thus, chemical restraint has been successfully employed by the wildlife Veterinarians to relocate or treat animals in the captivity as well as in the wild resulting in the rescue of many rare and critically endangered species. These advanced procedures have become increasingly more popular and are slowly being adopted by zoos in India for safer handling of wild animals. However, the modern capture methods require a high degree of expertise and experience, as well as basic knowledge of anatomy, physiology and behaviour of the animals to be captured. Chemical capture of wild animals is a huge responsibility and can be very expensive, especially when there are losses caused by injuries, capture myopathy, and the incorrect use of tranquillizing and immobilizing drugs. There can also be deaths due to mal- adaptation to the new habitat. Many zoo veterinarians and 7 forest managers lack such expertise and experience. The ultimate success of the wildlife capture, transport and re- establishment of animals is determined not merely by the success in capture of the animals but more often evaluated in terms of how the animals are handled, transported and kept after capture and whether they adapt and breed successfully in their new environment. Unfortunately recent advancement in chemical capture techniques has not effectively reached to the end users, wildlife Veterinarians and conservation biologists working in the remote places of India. The majority of them do not have easy access to the updated veterinary literature for use in the field. In this manual, an attempt has been made to present a comprehensive ready reckoner for zoo veterinarians and forest rangers on wildlife capture and very practical information with a systematic documentation of immobilizing drugs, their properties, usage, and availability. Each drug is described individually with its advantages and disadvantages under separate headings. The manual also provides information on variety of anaesthetic equipment, its usage, darting techniques and precautions while capturing wildlife species. The discussion is based on extensive experience of authors spanning over more than a decade in handling and care of anaesthetized animals. Based on this wildlife experience, several anaesthetic drug combinations in wild felids (Lion (Panthera leo) , Tiger (Panthera tigris) and Leopard (Panthera pardus), ungulates (Deer and Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) ) and other zoo animals has been optimised using large sample size for achieving safer, efficient and reliable anaesthesia. The physiological values of cardio-pulmonary and thermal systems 8 during the anaesthesia are also provided in a tabular form. More importantly, based on the experience over the years, the safe, effective and precise dosage of antagonists/antidotes in variety of wildlife species in India has also been developed. This information is exclusively important during handling of valuable endangered animals as many times anaesthetic recovery would be dangerous and may prove fatal. Finally, this manual also presents anaesthesia regimes of other zoo animals such as Elephant (Elephas maximus), Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) and other ungulates. It is hoped that this manual would be useful for zoo veterinarians and forest managers in India for safe use of chemical capture methods in case of precious wildlife species for their clinical health management, experimentation and translocation etc. 9 2. CAPTURE METHODS The capture and handling of wild animals plays a prominent role in wildlife conservation and management. On a regular basis, zoo veterinarian has to deal with animal handling for various purposes. It could be for routine health check-up (veterinary care, surgical intervention, vaccination, hormonal implantation, or sterilization), research purpose (assisted reproductive techniques, blood collection for genetic health analysis,